A point of interest (POI) is a specific point location that one may find useful or interesting. Location-based services rely extensively on POIs. For example, within electronic maps, mapping applications, and/or navigation applications, POIs are displayed within a map view based upon the recorded location of each respective POI. Having accurate location data for POIs significantly improves the usefulness of a location-based service. Conversely, inaccurate POI data may lead to user frustration and/or abandonment of the service.
In some cases, available location information for POIs may be inaccurate. One example is that of a pedestrian only commercial area such as an indoor or outdoor shopping mall or plaza. Typically, the address of each establishment in a pedestrian only commercial area has a same street number. The suite number of each business may be the only differentiating aspect of the addresses. In that case, it is likely that two or more POIs located in a same commercial area may have same location information despite being located significant distances from one another.
A variety of different techniques may be used to improve the accuracy of POI data. Available techniques, however, tend to be manual, costly, and time consuming to implement.